The London and North Western Railway (LNWR) 7 ft 6 in Single 2-2-2 class was a type of express passenger locomotive designed by John Ramsbottom.

[4] During the American Civil War, two Confederate diplomats travelling on the British mail packet RMS Trent were forcibly removed by Union Captain Charles Wilkes of the USS San Jacinto.

The catalogue made note that this was the same class that ran the "American express" on 7 January,[3] but the locomotive selected was No.

[1] The Lady of the Lake class locomotives spent their initial years working the Irish Mail traffic, as well as running local express services in the Manchester, Crewe and Liverpool area.

They gained a reputation as "flyers"[1] on the Irish Mail, even though the speed required by the Post Office contract (a 42 mph (68 km/h) average) was not particularly fast by contemporary standards.

Sir Richard Moon, Chairman of the LNWR, believed that a speed of 40 mph was sufficient for an express train.

In 1873, two years after Francis Webb took over as engineer from Ramsbottom, the new general manager William Cawkwell decided that black should be the standard colour for all locomotives.

This time they were fitted with enlarged boilers and larger fireboxes, round smokebox doors, crosshead vacuum pumps, new 3 in (76 mm) tyres (which increased the diameter of the driving wheels to 7 ft 9 in or 2.36 m), and cross-stays to stiffen the frames.

[9] These rebuilt Ladies gained a new lease of life and were often used to pilot express trains, achieving speeds of over 80 mph (130 km/h).

[10] The faster and heavier trains on the London and North Western Railway, combined with the small, economical engines that had been favoured for decades, meant a greater number of services had to be double-headed in order to keep time.

As the Precursors were rolling out of Crewe works, so the Ladies (and other underpowered engines such as Webb's 3-cylinder compounds) were cut up for scrap.